Comments on: Columbia’s Hunter-Gatherer planning new, separate brewery for 2015

By: Hunter-Gatherer announces location for production brewery | Drink. Blog. Repeat.

Mon, 12 Oct 2015 15:14:31 +0000

[…] 2014, Hunter-Gatherer announced it had started the process of searching for a location for a production-scale brewery in addition […]

By: Columbia’s Hunter-Gatherer planning new, separate brewery | Beer Infinity

Columbia’s Hunter-Gatherer planning new, separate brewery | Beer Infinity — Mon, 07 Jul 2014 00:25:06 +0000

[…] Read the full article here. […]

By: drinkblogrepeat

drinkblogrepeat — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 20:48:35 +0000

Brewpubs can convert their license to that of a brewery if they want to capitalize on the Stone Law, but they don’t have to.

By: drinkblogrepeat

drinkblogrepeat — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 20:46:46 +0000

Thank you for clarifying that, Kevin. I was about to say you’ve been doing this long enough that I figured you knew what you could and couldn’t do in regards to each business and you as a stakeholder in each, and you apparently do. I appreciate you chiming in.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 20:31:52 +0000

Doesn’t the Stone Bill make it easier for brewpubs to convert their licenses to brewery ones? If this does become an issue, it seems like that might be a fix.

By: Kevin Varner

Kevin Varner — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 17:49:43 +0000

For 18 years, I assumed that a brewpub was in the retail tier; therefore, I would not be able open a brewery in the brewer tier. The three tier system does prevent a person from having a business interest in more than one of the three tiers. Last year, I reread the pertinent laws and concluded that brewpubs are not actually in a tier. Several lawyers agreed. I was actually working on opening a separate brewery before the “Stone Law.”

Now, I could stop serving liquor at existing HG if I had to change HG from a brewpub into a microbrewery-a silly part of the new law. Overall the new law is great.

Kevin Varner
Hunter-Gatherer Brewery

By: Brad

Brad — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 15:18:02 +0000

No, but he’d have a stake in two of three tiers, period.

Per sec 61-4-940-D:
“A manufacturer, brewer, and importer of beer are declared to be in business on one tier, a wholesaler on another tier, and a retailer on another tier. A person or an entity in the beer business on one tier, or a person acting directly or indirectly on his behalf, may not have ownership or financial interest in the beer business operation on another tier.”

Not trying to burst anyone’s bubble here, but I am curious what if any changes he’ll have to make to pull this off. I believe SLED conducts investigations anyway on behalf of DOR before the latter issues permits.

This is one reason why I was unhappy to see the “Stone bill” language moved from brewpubs to breweries and the bit about no liquor, because it takes away options that would have been available under the original version of the bill.

By: drinkblogrepeat

drinkblogrepeat — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 03:29:59 +0000

Again, I don’t see an issue. The new Hunter-Gatherer brewery will be it’s own separate thing. It won’t produce beer for or distribute beer to the brewpub, so it’s not as if Varner’s got a stake in two of the three tiers in that respect.

By: Brad

Brad — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 02:49:26 +0000

The three-tier law says one can’t have a financial interest (or whatever the wording) in multiple tiers.

By: drinkblogrepeat

drinkblogrepeat — Thu, 03 Jul 2014 00:05:00 +0000

I don’t see why he wouldn’t be able to do both. They’ll be separate businesses. H-G on Main Street will remain as is (brewing on site, serving liquor, wine and food) and the new brewery will be a taproom and production facility only.